The War of E. Coli, Agar Plates and Pipette Tips

Nope, World War III did not occur in my Life Sciences Lab. LOL. But we certainly had a good laugh yesterday. And the perpetuator of it all: Xiu Xian!

After Organic Chemistry lecture, we (Xiu Xian, Chen En, Philip, Poh and I) all trooped to the Frontier (Science Canteen) to have lunch. Philip then had to leave first cos he has Chem tutorial at 1pm, so he left his empty plate on the table and we would clear it for him later. When the rest of us has finally finished eating and all, we stood to return our trays to the collection point. Then Xiu Xian looked at Philip's plate and saw this mass of coagulated rice cos Philip had been playing with the leftover remnants of his chicken rice -.- So it was like, ewww and Xiu Xian was so grossed out she went "Why he leave this kind of thing here?! I'll throw AGAR PLATES at him later!!"

(Note: Agar plates are used to grow bacteria in labs)

The rest of us were so stunned by her statement that for a split-second there was pure silence, before all hell broke loose and we proceeded to laugh ourselves to death. OH MAN! It was SO HILARIOUS!! I was doubled over in my seat, wiping at the tears in my eyes as I laughed and laughed!! And Poh's laughter was seriously FUNNY! And I started laughing at his laughter as well!

Then I began thinking how we could have other types of 'weapons' as well in the lab, like maybe pipettes or something. And Poh said "Yeah! We could shoot pipette tips!" The absurdity of that idea sank into my head and all hell broke loose for the second time as we all cracked up in laughter again. Shoot pipette tips?!?! HAHAHAHA!!

(Note: Micropipettes are commonly used in science labs to draw up a very tiny amount of substance, usually in microlitres. And after use, you need to eject the pipette tip and throw it away)

Needless to mention, Lab that day was absolutely hilarious. It was like we all lost our minds or something. Poh and I just kept referring to pipette tips as 'ammunition' now and we just kept laughing and going HIGH. It was crazy. And here are some pictures of lab!

Death

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
the carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
-First stanza, The Chariot by Emily Dickinson

The concept of death is so foreign to many of us. Even right at this moment, my mind cannot seem to grasp the idea of Death occuring to any of my loved ones. I was devastated when my great-grandmother passed away earlier this year and I remember clearly, how I stood by her coffin on the last day of the ceremony and I tried to the best of my ability to memorise her face, her looks, before they took her away to be cremated.

I was just reading the blog of a girl, whose loved one was taken away by Death. And her words hit me. They hit me hard. I was in tears in mere minutes. And it made me think. Like I said, I am unable to accept the fact that one fine day, Death will come and take my loved ones away. So I started thinking. What if, one day, the person lying in the coffin were my grandparents...? And one day, what if, the person lying in the coffin were my parents...?

And I find that I still am unable to accept it.

Unfortunately, Death is all too real.

And Death will come, one fine day, whether you like it or not. Death will come.

For a very long time, I pushed all these thoughts away. I kept thinking "Aiya, let's not think about it now... They're all still well and alive..." But of course, there's nothing we can do to stop death. Sure, science, technology and medicine has certainly prolonged our lives, but death is still our inevitable end.

So. What's the gist of this all?

Treasure your loved ones now: your family, your relatives, your friends.
And never take them for granted.
Never let Death be the one to make you realise the value of what you have just lost.

A Series of Unfortunate Events... Part 3

Disaster loves me.

So it was an ordinary Monday accompanied with its usual Monday Blues as I travelled from home to the other end of the country to get to my University. As I alighted at Buona Vista, I saw Chen En semi-glaring at me. "Why didn't you turn on your handphone?!"

Huh? My cell phone IS turned on. I pulled it out of my pocket and showed it to her. Okaaay, strange. So I asked her to call me again. And she was right. My cell phone did not ring and she got the "Please leave a message" line. So I thought that something could be wrong with my cell phone and decided to turn it off before switching it on again. To my utmost horror, it went off and never came back again. It simply dieded. There goes my phone. So I became uncontactable as of 9.20am in the morning. Great.

So we had a 2 hours lecture on Organic Chemistry after which I went back to my hostel in an attempt to ressurect my dead cell phone with the charger in my room. Xiu Xian came along cos we both have Lab at 3pm. On the way back to my room, I started digging around in my bag for my room key. Strange, I couldn't find it. So we stopped halfway and I practically emptied the contents of my bag onto a ledge (don't worry, no danger of anything falling off). No room key. I wanted to kill myself for the sheer stupidity of the situation I'd landed myself into. I figured I'd probably absent-mindedly left my room key at home. So Xiu Xian and I decided to just go have lunch at the Gourmet Cafe nearby.

Then the Heavens opened up and rain poured down.

There was no shelter to the cafe.

So we ran lor.

Lunch was lovely. I had fish & chips and XX had a tortilla wrap. The cafe had a really nice atmosphere so the both of us just basked in it and talked to our hearts' content. And then... it happened...

Arrival of the monthly horror/woes/suffering. Of all days and time. Today. Accompanied with it, is an onslaught of the deadly cramps. So I was half-dead by the time I got to the Science Faculty from my hostel. If I had paracetamol with me, I might have very nearly succumbed to it. But I didn't, so the conventional way. I went to buy myself a cup of hot water and drank it bit by bit.

I don't know why, but it felt like the more I drank, the more I started to feel nauseous and I started to break out in cold sweat. But the cramps were killing me, so to hell with it. I drank a few more sips. And then my stomach balked.

I dashed into the nearest toilet, only to find that all 3 cubicles were occupied. There was only one thing left to do: I simply emptied the contents of my stomach into the nearest sink. I vomitted out all the water I drank as well as my entire lunch. There goes my fish & chips. Second glorious appearance in the world. As quoted from Xiu Xian, "I saw your fish & chips. Before and after." Lol. Yeah, before it went into my stomach and after it came out.

After emptying my stomach in the toilet, I was late for lab. So Xiu Xian and I stumbled to the Lab, with me looking as white as a sheet. It was like somebody drained my face of colour (as quoted from Poh, my lab partner who was totally shocked at how pale I looked). But honestly, I felt SO BAD I just wanted to crawl into any nearest bed and like die in peace there or something. But there was no make-up lab session. XX helped me tell the lecturer and he was really nice. Dr Wu told me to go home and rest and to simply write down my name, TA and bench number and to come for a make-up with Group 2 next monday.

But it's like, okay, since I'm already here, might as well try to make it through the next 3 hours or so. Thus, I decided to stay on, plonking my bag and file onto the rack and donning my lab coat, before grabbing my pencil case and stumbling over to my bench.

The pain never abated for quite a long time. I was nearly oblivious to the TA (teaching assistant) as she rambled on about bacteria and their DNA and what not. I leaned over and told Poh "If I die halfway here, you're on your own... And I'm not paying attention right now, so just tell me what to do later..." And he was like geez "I'm more worried about you man, you look like very very pale." And I just managed a weak smile back. For the first time, I actually felt that the lab was cold, even with my long-sleeved lab coat on. And for the first time again, I actually came darn close to fainting.

I was gonna pour E. Coli from the big tube to the smaller tube and I got up to walk over to the sink. All of sudden, the world just tilted. Like WHOAAA. I swayed back but I swiftly just grabbed onto the table. Like OMG. What on EARTH just happened?!

It was only after 2 hours later, that I finally felt kind of like a human again. Then I travelled home all the way back to the other end of the country with XX and Poh. And it was finally home sweet home.

Yep, disaster loves me all right.